Computers are powerful tools of use in storing and providing access to vast amounts of information, while databases are a common mechanism for storing information on computer systems while providing easy access to users. Typically, a database is an organized collection of information stored as “records” having “fields” of information. (e.g., a restaurant database may have a record for each restaurant in a region, where each record contains fields describing characteristics of the restaurant, such as name, address, type of cuisine, and the like).
Often, databases may use clusters of computers in order to be able to store and access large amounts of data. This may require a large amount of information storage space. Often, compression may be used to reduce the amount of storage space necessary to host the information, but it may increase the computational load significantly as many common compression methods require the entire record or many records to be decompressed every time they are accessed.
As such, there is a continuing need for improved methods of storing and retrieving data at high speeds at a large scale.